March, 2015

As promised, here’s my own little take on the lentil sloppy joe! I have been craving these suckers big time which is super weird because not only have I never had one, I thought they looked disgusting when I was a kid. I mean, have you ever seen It Takes Two!?!? They are so messy and ground beef is the worst… But alas, while cray sloppy [hardy har har] they were also quite delicious. I was going to make everything from scratch via this recipe until I realized ain’t no body got time for that, so here’ s my super easy recipe.

[Sloppy Joe Innards]

1 cup red lentils

3 cups water

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 teaspoon of dry mustard, garlic powder, and salt

1 tablespoon brown sugar, optional [my sauce was a bit tart, so I wanted the sweetness]

1.5 cups of your favorite bbq sauce

Slider buns

Start with the onions and red peppers on medium heat in a dutch oven. You can use a touch of olive oil or water until soft. Once onions are translucent add mustard, garlic powder, salt, and brown sugar. Add 2 cups of the water and red lentils. Cook covered for 25 minutes. Stir add additional cup of water and bbq sauce. Cook uncovered for another 15 minutes until nice and thick!!

[Slaw]

1 quarter of a red cabbage, shredded

1/2-3/4 cup Veganaise [personal preference]

1 tablespoon dijion mustard

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients and pop in the fridge.

[HomeFries]

2 potatoes, cut into large wedges

tablespoon dried thyme

lotsa salt

olive oil

Preheat oven at 425 degrees. Drizzle with olive oil, thyme, salt and coat all of the potatoes. Make sure they are all touching the pan. Cook for 20 minutes and then flip, cook for another 15 or until crispy.

You can add Tabasco, Pickles, more BBQ, Slaw, the options are endless!!!!!!

So every few weeks I thought it would be fun to catch you up with my latest Pinterest obsessions because, as it turns out, I’m a superiorly talented pinner. I wish I could make it a job… Does that mean I should be an editor?! I think yes. Anywho, a few years ago I even won a Rachel Zoe Pinterest contest and besides my wedding day and the birth of my child, it’s my proudest moment. You think I’m joking. I’m not. My handwritten note from Rach is most definitely framed on my dresser… No shame. She’s Bananas. BA- NAN- NAS. Moving on, here are my top pins from last week!

[I never actually had a sloppy joe when I was a kid. I mean, ew. But lately they sound delicious. I’m gonna share my own red lentil sliders recipe later this week.]

[Vegan Snickers Ice Cream Bars, literally one of my favorite things in the world pre-veg!! Can’t wait to try these. The Minimalist Baker is my hero][This is my top repin of the past 2 weeks. I love the all white with the boxy gray coat. The black bag and nails are perf.][I’m currently obsessed with moving and buying a house. A house, hopefully, full of subway tiles]

[How much fun is this!? I want to make one in a fun color to hang on the all white walls of my new imaginary home!!]

So part of me feels like people don’t want to hear about how effing tired I am, but there’s this other part of me who A. doesn’t care and B. feels like it’s complete bullshit if I pretend to have a perfect baby who sleeps perfectly and shits perfectly… I don’t even know what that means, but I’ve seen bloggers with beautiful family pics of their amazing baby who not only brings joy and perfect piles of perfect poo, they sleep through the night and even started working a part time job to pay for diapers… It makes me mad, like, rullll mad. I know a ton of moms read these blogs and think, Shit, what am I doing wrong?! Nothing, you’re doing nothing wrong!! Around 4.5 months MohawkRoc completely forgot how to sleep. So for the past month or so we have gone back to the basics of getting him sleeping through the night. We are dealing with “the rolling over” phase and he’s yet to master rolling back so he wakes up on his tummy very angry-like… but enough of that, here’s what has been sustaining us during our sleep fast.

[1] Fuel. There are a variety of must have beverages: h2o, coffee, and beer… not necessarily in that order. Hydrating is super important and La Croix coconut sparkling water is my favorite thing in the world. I toss back these things like a boss. Donut Shop’s Coconut Mocha coffee is INSANE delicious, I mean so good. I’ve never needed coffee before, but that is not the case any more. I don’t do cream and sugar, but lately I haven’t been digging my usual super bitter black coffee. Enter this coffee. It’s so crisp and yummy you don’t need to add anything. Then there’s the booze. Banquet Beer. Cheap and tasty. Perfect when you just need a light beer with dinner to relax your brain from thinking about how you probably aren’t going to sleep tonight either… le sigh… Oh and let us not forget to eat. We live off of Chipotle. Brown Rice. Beans. Veggies. Gauc. Lettuce. Relatively healthy, cheap, and fast. Boom. Enjoy with cold Banquet beer.
[2] Wardrobe. It’s imperative you have stretchy lounge pants acceptable to be worn in public and a good hat… Boom. Pair with a cute tee or tank and you look like you give a damn, but we all know the truth… Not only do you not remember when you last gave a damn, you also put your underwear on inside out this morning and can’t be bothered to fix them… not that I’m speaking from experience…
[3] Beauty. So eye cream is my new best friend. I’ve actually been using the whole line of Renée Rouleau products and I’m really impressed with the results, but this eye cream is brilliant. Total Eye Repair. Because, DAMN, we need to repair those eyes. And forget wearing your hair down, your kid is gonna pull all that shit out, like giant chunks of hair, and then they are going to try and eat it… Weirdos. I love these Emi Jay hair ties, they help you avoid hair headache!
[4] Entertainment. Our attention spans are pretty pathetic these days, but once the monster nugget is asleep we like to snuggle and laugh our asses off. Currently, we are obsessed with Blackish and The Mindy Project. We also love Modern Family, New Girl, About a Boy, and Brooklyn 99. All VERY funny and while we might not know much, we know funny. We also watch The Walking Dead, but we right now we are a few episodes behind. CARRLLLLLLLLLLL.
[5] New Challenge. Journaling. I opened up to a wonderful friend about how the exhaustion was really weighing on me. I feel tired to my core. It’s so hard to do anything well when you are that worn out and that can really start to affect your mood. I had been praying for rest for Mohawk and for The Captain and I and was just really feeling unheard, my friend suggested journaling and just keeping all those thoughts fresh in my mind and having an open and honest connection to my feelings and to God.

Hope this helps in some small way!! It helped me just to right it out!! So ladies, I want to know what are your must haves when you are utterly exhausted!?!

First, let me say that my normally jovial baby was NOT impressed with mommy’s photo shoot. He was an angry angry elf. Not cool, Rocco, not cool. Alas, we have a grumpy model, but luckily the FP moccs are so cute it doesn’t even matter! Since I have the super strange obsession with cameo these days, I couldn’t resist. Let me tell you, these puppies are well worth the money!! They are made so well and with quality materials. I lalalalove the elastic to help keep your nuggets from kicking them off every chance that they get. We did a size 2 and they are a bit big, I swear I measured right, so I’m def going to have smaller sizes for our imaginary second child. I have a few pairs of larger sizes, but I could kick myself for not having any of their “crib moccs” basically a size zero for 3-5 months. I think these are the perfect baby shower gift!! I gave a pair of the gold to a friend and let me tell you, they were a hit!!! I mentioned it during our giveaway, but I just love Susan Petersen and her amazingly unique story!! This is a business that I feel good giving money to, plus, come on!?!? They are the cutest freaking moccasins on the market! Obviously, I’m a huge fan, go buy a pair or 3.

So this is a take on one of my favorite recipes by my dietitian hero, Kimberly Snyder. I definitely put my spin on it, added some more veggies and some delish brown rice noodles, but it’s still healthy and totally filling, warm, and comforting. Who wants to make me some, like, right now!?Serves 2 hungry-hungry hippos

4 cups veggie stock

1 can organic, full fat coconut milk, [helpful tip: Always shake the can before opening]

Since I spend most of my days to in some sort of stretchy pant, not the kind acceptable to wear out in public, I thought I would take a quick journey down memory lane. Let’s have a quick moment of silence for all the ridiculously fun clothes I used to wear [I miss you leopard pencil skirt], the kind of fun clothes I hope to wear again… someday… If you have the energy to dress up or wash your hair, I’ve also included some pieces the chic Lauren buried deep down inside is currently lusting after for you to shop!!!! Someone needs to be fabulous in my stead!

Shopaholic

Shopaholic

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